No to nuclear power

Nuclear power and the waste it produces are not welcome in Germany. This is the message sent out by small protests held this weekend in the northern towns of Ahaus, Lubmin and Greifswald.

In Ahaus, near the Dutch border, seven hundred people formed a chain around a nuclear storage site that holds spent nuclear fuel rods. The rods were supposed to be sent to a Russian reprocessing plant in Majak but the Environment Ministry ruled last week that the plant did not meet safety standards so the shipment never left Germany. In fact, the city of Majak, which is in the Urals, is considered one of the most contaminated places in the world, more so than Chernobyl. The protesters were calling for deliveries to and from Ahaus to end and expressed their solidarity with Russians living in the proximity of nuclear power plants.

In Greifswald, on the Baltic coast, 2,500 people took to the streets to protest against a shipment of radioactive waste expected to arrive from France this week.  The waste originally comes from the research vessel “Otto Hahn”, which flies under a German flag. The protest was peaceful and bright red banners read “Nuclear power? No thanks!”

These protests follow more violent protests held earlier in month when news of the government’s decision to extend the life of the country’s 17 nuclear power plants well beyond the planned shut-off date of around 2020 were announced.